Windrush Compensation Scheme

Baroness Hodge of Barking Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that this is a bespoke scheme. We have to treat individuals on a case-by-case basis and to understand their circumstances and the injustices. He mentioned the Home Office paying for travel. That also includes flights in some cases. Everybody has a different experience and story, so it is right that we work with every individual to make sure they get the justice they deserve and the support they need.

[Dame Margaret Hodge (Barking) (Lab) [V]]

My constituent, Sarah O’Connor, one of the Windrush generation, came to Britain when she was six. At 56, having always worked, she was made redundant and told she had no right to live here. She lost the right to work and had no income. She sold her car, was issued with a notice to quit and even had to stop the precious swimming lessons that meant so much to the granddaughter she cared for. In 2018, she was finally granted British citizenship, but she tragically died last September, at just 57 years old. In one email, she wrote:

“I don’t think I have the strength to keep going any more”.

We have been pursuing her compensation claim for almost two years. Complexity is not a good enough explanation for the delay. Can the Home Secretary please tell me: is it a deliberate element of her Government’s hostile environment policy, or is her Department simply dysfunctional?

[Priti Patel]

First, I am aware of the case the right hon. Lady refers to. I understand that the claim on behalf of the deceased’s estate is under consideration right now. There is nothing deliberate about complexity. She will have heard me say in my statement and in my explanations to other hon. Members that the compensation scheme was set up in conjunction with the Windrush generation based on the needs they themselves outlined. It is the right approach to have that bespoke scheme. It takes time, but every claim is handled in a very bespoke way by an individual case handler. If she has specific points she wants to make about this compensation claim, which is under consideration right now, she is welcome to speak to me directly.